The court also postponed indefinitely the start of Banda’s trial, which had been set for November 18.
According to an ICC communiqué, the court asked the Registry to “transmit the new requests for arrest and surrender to any State, including the Sudan, on whose territory Mr Banda may be found”.
Banda appeared voluntarily before the ICC on June 17, 2010. The court said it had requested Sudan’s cooperation to “facilitate the accused’s presence at trial”, but that this was not forthcoming and so “there are no guarantees that, in the current circumstances, he will be in an objective position to appear voluntarily, regardless of whether he wishes to be present at trial or not”.
If, however, Banda does appear voluntarily, the Court said it would “take the voluntary appearance into consideration and revisit accordingly the conditions of his stay in The Netherlands during the trial”.
Banda faces three charges of war crimes in connection with a September 2007 attack on the African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Sudan, at the Haskanita Military base in Darfur.
Other Sudanese, including President Omar Al Bashir are also wanted by the ICC for crimes committed in Darfur.
Bashir still manages to travel within Africa without a problem, despite the ICC arrest warrant against him.
ER/JC